Author
|
Topic: Airline optical prints.
|
Tom Photiou
Film God
Posts: 4837
From: Plymouth U.K
Registered: Dec 2003
|
posted January 04, 2004 06:32 AM
I was interested to read Nicks comments about a list some of you chaps put together ref titles with optical sound,i never realised it was anywhere like 43,(i do have The Bounty with Mel Gibson if it wasn't on there, ive not seen it on any lists before or since) For those who have FFTC issue 41 1998 have a look at Dereks viewpoint, if you dont have a copy here is a potted version, he answered my quetion into where are they originated and where are they now,He explaines-- Through Roy Hubbard from Rank labs he was introduced to a man in charge of a company called SUNSTRAND,the company responsible for airline prints. Based with techniclour labs near Heathrow.He was told most prints were made at the labs in NY with Rank doing some of there own titles here. USA prints had an almost B/W colour to the soundtrack while the UK prints had a dark blue look to them, the UK labs didn't coat them, The result-UK Tracks gave a lower output with more hiss and plops. Some prints carried another track on the edge of the sprocket holes for other laugages.He adds at one point he was standing in front of 5-6 thousand copies of feature films. Upon delivery each film had to be spliced together to be put into a large cartridge for aircraft use and coated with silicone to avoid enulsion build up and scracthing. The checking machines used to view the prints had xenon lamps so the sound output was always very good and powerful. And now for those of you with strong stomachs read on- once the films had served there purpose they were returned to various film dumps around the world & supposedly junked. Derek explains how he was at Sunstrand when they destroyed around 500 feature films & an official from the film industry stood there while they put an axe through every film, if i had been therei would have been on my knees beggin' Obviously some of these prints did get out and Derek manged a deal with Warner and columbia to sell Derann a few prints, around ten titles in all and of course it all ended when the airlines went to video, you need to take care purchasing them as Derek explains most of the airline prints were done on eastman stock at a time when it was suspect so many are or will likely turn pink, the storage for any film to slow this down or prevent it, is as cool as poss, mine are all in a lower ground room which is always nice and cool all year round. If any of you have that issue take a read, it's a good one and an eye opener.
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|